Millions of esports fans around the world witnessed the crowning of Chinese team EDward Gaming (EDG) as the winner of League of Legends World Championship 2021. They trumped their rivals DWG KIA to lift the Summoner's Cup in an event that was watched by millions of fans but which drew an especially rapturous audience in China.
EDG won the five-game series, taking three games to DWG KIA's two. The contests were closely fought, with the two sides being quite evenly matched. More than four million viewers watched the titantic tussle outside of China. Overall viewership figures are still being counted.
Edward Gaming is a professional esports organisation based in Shanghai, China. Esports are a major fixture in China where there are over 400 million esports fans. DWG KIA, mea🦹nwhile, tꦑheir rivals in the finals, are a pro esports outfit from South Korea. League of Legends also has a devoted esports following in South Korea.
DWG KIA won last year's League World Championship, defeating China's Suning Gaming 3-1. Had the South Korean outfit won this year's cup, they would've been only the second team in history to win two consecutive Worlds (the other being their compatriots SK Telecom).
But for this year's competition, it was Shanghai's EDG who took the top spot, celebrating their first ever League of Legends World Championship win. They were the underdogs coming into the final, it being the first time ever they had appeared in the World finals. EDG's Scout, a mid lane player, took the MVP award for the Worlds final series.
The finals were held in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, and were watched by millions of fans in China via streaming and social media. Many of them took to their balconies and the streets after EDG took the final win, with some celebrating enthusiastically even though local time was 2am.
The 2020 World Championship set new records, being the biggest 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:League of Legends esports event thus far, with a 23-million average minute audience (AMA) for its Grand Final, which peaked at 45.95 million concurrent viewers, according to numbers by Riot Games in association with StreamHatchet. Last year's final was held in Shanghai, China. It remains to be seen whether this year's event can top those figures.